342 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
disposed in compact ovoid ears, forming cones when at maturity by 
the development of their sepales and bracts. The fruit or achenes 
are covered with a granulous powder of a greenish or golden yellow 
colour ; they are very odorous, and contain an active principle to 
which chemists have given the name of Lupulin. The cones of 
the Hop are used in the manufacture of beer; they are tonic, and 
slightly narcotic. 
The: Moracem are trees and shrubs, sometimes climbing plants 
mostly yielding a milky juice. The Fig (Ficus) and the Mulberry 
(Morus) are natives of warm countries, where they form. vast 
forests, the thick trunks and strong boughs of the Fig with its 
large head being conspicuous. ‘Travellers speak of the noble 
aspect of the Wild Fig, of their gigantic dimensions, and the 
thick delightful shade cast by*their leafy heads. Fraser, speaking 
of their habits at Moreton Bay, says, “I observed several species of 
Ficus, upwards of one hundred and fifty feet high, enclosing 
immense Iron-bark trees, on which the seeds of those F ig-trees had 
been originally deposited by birds. Here they had vegetated and 
thrown out their parasitical and rapacious roots, which he 
close to the bark of the Iron-tree, had followed the course of the 
stem downwards to the earth, where, once arrived, their progres? 
and growth is truly astonishing. The roots increase rapidly = a 
number, envelop the iron-bark, and send out at the same ai 
such gigantic branches, that it is not unusual to see the original 
tree, at the height of seventy or eighty feet, peeping through the 
Fig as if i were a parasite on the real intruder.” But the Pagoda- 
tree (Ficus Indicus) excells all others in its magnitude, one Loh: 
being capable of giving shelter toa regiment of cavalry. This tree 
is anative of India and the islands of the Indian Ocean, reaching | 
its greatest perfection in the villages on the skirts of the pearees a 
mountains. The branches cover a vast extent of ground, a 
their roots here and there, which as they reach the groem | 
rapidly increase in size till they become as large 
trunk. Roxburgh says he has seen such trees full 
yards round the circumference of the branches, and 
feet high, the principal trunk being twenty-five feet UP se : 
first branches, and eight or nine feet in diameter. ae tainin g 
five hundred . 
-a buneree 
the 
All the species of Ficus abound in a milky juice 
as the parent 
